Bay County Fl Sheriff Mckeithen is furious over baby burned in explosion

Bay County, FLA Sheriff Frank Mckeithen is furious over a meth lab explosion, earlier this week, that resulted in life threatening burns to a Johna Osborn, a one-year-old baby girl, whose playpen caught fire during a meth lab explosion. At a press conference soon after the explosion, Mckeithen let his anger and his words fly, stressing that he is tired of being politically correct when it comes to saving someone’s life.

*Sheriff McKeithen did this news conference shortly before John Osborn, the baby’s 34 year-old father was arrested and taken in to custody.

Bay County Florida: Baby in critical condition after meth lab explodes

Minnesota: Couple unknowingly buys house from meth lab cook

All that Kristi and Justin Keller wanted was a home to call their own, where they could someday raise a family of their own. After years of saving their money for a down payment, they Read more

Making meth in Kansas and Missouri is about to get alot harder

Making meth in  Kansas and Missouri is about to get alot harder, when computerized data tracking systems get installed in each and every one of their pharmacies. Thanks to the pharmaceutical industry, that day is coming very soon. The Pharmaceutical Industry is giving both states the gift of digitized systems that will keep track of who may be buying pseudoephedrine-based products to manufacture methamphetamine.  Additionally, the industry says Read more

Indiana: The Sabatino meth lab home story

In 2006,  Julie McCoy Sabatino bought a small two-story house in Churubusco, Indiana, an affordable home where she dreamed of happy days together with her 10 year old son.  But, health problems began, just a few weeks after Read more

Illinois police stop speeding driver and find meth worth $600,000

August 26, 2009:  The Illinois Cook County Sheriff’s office announced finding 4.4 pounds of crystal meth after pulling over a man who was going 46 mph in a 30 mph zone near intersection of 55th Street and Central in Stickney Township, at 2 a.m. yesterday morning.  Police say when they asked the driver for identification, he provided them with a  fake Michigan driver’s license.

A police search of the car turned up a container on the back seat that held crystal meth with an estimated worth of $600,000.  The driver of the car, has been identified as a resident of Grand Rapids Michigan.  He was placed under arrest on a charge  of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.  He is  scheduled to appear in bond court at the Cook County Courthouse at 2600 S. California Ave.  on Thursday.

For more information about this story:

“$600k of crystal meth found in car”, ABC7 News Chicago, Illinois, 8/26/09, http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=6984749

Bay County Florida: Baby in critical condition after meth lab explodes

A one year old girl is in critical condition, after a meth lab in her parents’ home exploded in  Bay County, Florida, on Sunday. One-year-old, Johna Osborn, received 2nd degree burns on 41% of her body, which will likely scar her for life – if she survives. Another baby, who was also in the home, was unhurt.

The Bay County Sheriff’s office says that when they arrived at the home, the girl’s mother explained that the girl got burned when she tripped while carrying the hot grease that started the fire. An investigation of the incident however, revealed that the fire was actually caused by a meth lab explosion, in the family’s home on Mylisa Road in Southport.Investigators believe that the girl’s father, Johnny Osborn was cooking meth when the explosion occurred. Despite his young daughter’s serious burn injuries, Osborn fled, when neighbors wouldn’t comply with his requests not to call 911.

On Tuesday, Osborn went to a local business and asked for medical help for the burns he received on his arms and hands. Employees then called the Lynn Haven Police Department to report a “suspicious” incident. When the Lynn Haven police arrived, they realized they had found the man who was “most wanted” by Sheriff Frank Mckeithen of Bay County. News reports say that then Mckeithen personally arrived to arrest arrest Osborn, before taking him to the hospital to be treated for his burns. Osborn, reports say, was already wanted on warrants out of Georgia. Reports about Sheriff Mckeithen’s reaction to the explosion, said that he was visibly angered and emotional about the incident. In fact, he was so upset with Osborn that he would not refused to acknowledge him as the father, instead choosing to describe him only as the “man that born her”.

Osborn and Wega had only been living in the neighborhood for a month, according to neighbors, who were upset and surprised about the explosion. They described the couple as quiet people, who kept to themselves, and as people who appeared to be good parents. One neighbor said he liked the couple. None of the neighbors, realized that they were running a meth lab. After the explosion, neighbors learned that Johnny Osborn was not the kind of neighbor that they thought he was. Osborn, they said, asked them not to call police after the explosion, because he was wanted by police in Georgia.

Once Osborn gets released from the hospital, he will be taken to the Bay County Jail, where he will be booked on charges including Aggravated Child Abuse, Manufacture of Methamphetamine Resulting in Injury to a Child, and Possession of a Listed Chemical (Pseudoephedrine).

Tessa Wagy, 23, is being charged with aggravated child abuse.

This is the 5th meth related explosion in Bay County in the last two months.

Source: WMBB “Mother Arrested, Father in Hospital After Meth Lab Explosion that Injured Baby”, 8/25/09,http://www.panhandleparade.com/index.php/mbb/article/mother_arrested_father_in_hospital_after_meth_lab_explosion_that_injured_ba/mbb7718501/

Motel closes after 7 rooms filled with meth lab chemicals

The Cross Lanes Motel 6 on Goff Mountain Road in  WV has closed its doors, after finding out that 7 rooms in the motel were contaminated by meth lab chemicals.  On Thursday, July 9, 2009, around 10:30 a.m,  Detective V. Armstrong, Detective K. Shank and several other members of the Metro Drug Unit,  went to the motel to investigate a tip they received that someone was cooking meth in one of the rooms in the motel.  Inside the room, they discovered that what the tipster had told them was true. Donny Ray Kyle, 37, of St. Albans, Joseph Strickland, 32, of Elkview and Rebecca Walker, 34 were found inside the room, along with meth making equipment, chemicals used to manufacture meth, and meth residue.  Police also discovered that they had disabled the smoke detector in the room. They are being held at South Central Regional Jail.

After the bust, police  called in a Hazmat clean up team from Parkerburg to remove the chemicals and equipment, afterwhich the room would be boarded up, until it was professionally decontaminated. But, tests proved that the room was only one of 7 that had been contaminated by  hazardous chemicals.

The parent company of the Cross Lanes Motel, AccorHotels, says it will issue a news release about the incident.  No reservations are being accepted at the Cross Lanes Motel, until further notice.

*They have officially closed their doors and have updated their online reservation system, as well. Here’s what happened when I tried to make a online reservation today for the Cross Lanes Motel.

My concern is….how many families with children stayed in those contaminated rooms? No one is saying anything about that. Maybe no one really knows, for sure.

The motel’s website says that it can provide cribs for infants and it allowed children to stay there free- a good deal for parents traveling with young children. However, letting “kids stay free” is not such a great deal, when the room has been contaminated with meth lab chemicals.

Source:

“Meth lab found in Cross Lanes motel room”, Charleston Daily Mail, 7/10/09, http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/200907090873, accessed 8/22/09

Barren, Amanda, “Hotel to voluntarily close after meth bust”,  WSAZ News Channel 3, 8/19/09, http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/53711037.html, accessed 8/22/09

Maine: DEA arrests couple for making meth in Bath

BATH, Maine  (July 16, 2008)  The DEA filed charges against a Bath couple, after finding evidence of a meth lab in a shed behind their home on Shaw Street.  Walter Kruse, 42, was charged with trafficking and furnishing methamphatemine. Beth Grasser, 35, was arrested for aggravated trafficking of prescription drugs.  Three children were living in the home were removed from the home and put in the care of other adults, according to a report about the incident by the Associated Press.

Source:  “Agents find suspected meth lab in midcoast Maine”, Fosters Daily Democrat, http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/NEWS0104/101954823, 7/16/08, accessed 8/21/09

TN Holt family update: Hope fades as meth lab bills pile up

Several months have passed, since I was first contacted by Rhonda Holt from Winchester, TN, and my most recent conversation with her was distressing. Read more

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Meet David Parnell former meth user, survivor, and teacher

David Parnell, a former meth user from TN, has faced the meth dragon and has the battle scars to prove it.  His face, now pieced together by multiple surgeries, is a tribute to the doctors who helped put back what meth took away from him, the night it convinced him to take his own life.

Parnell talks about that fateful night, when his wife told him that she was leaving and Read more

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